That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn't entirely conquer - he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation.

The thing that was important to me about Hemingway at the time was that Hemingway taught me that you could be a writer and get away with it.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body.

Writing is the flip side of sex - it's good only when it's over.

There might be some serious fun in politics.

I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000, but I will not make that mistake again. The joke is over for Nader. He was funny once, but now he belongs to the dead.

It is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it.